Tag: Jaguar F-Type

Running the gauntlet of endless repetition, DTW’s resident kitty-fancier asks, how do you solve a problem like Jaguar?

(c) europeancarweb

In 2005, a chastened senior Jaguar executive conceded that both they and their Ford masters had made a strategic error, admitting to British parliamentarians that they had jointly pursued “a failed growth strategy” for the heritage marque. Once this realisation hit home, the residents of Dearborn’s Glasshouse began a fundamental rethink of the leaping cat.

Amongst the changes wrought was that Jaguar would henceforth emphasise its sporting credentials, with the cars’ dynamic dial being shifted from traditional values of NVH isolation and ride refinement towards matters of incisive turn-in and outright handling prowess.

The second strand to this change of ethos lay in abandoning the chase for sales volume, pushing them further upmarket. The key to this transformation was to Continue reading “Gone To Earth”

The XJ and F-Type represent the rearguard of traditional Jaguar formats, but while one continues its slide, the other appears to be holding firm.

Image: andoniscars

With Jaguar’s original E-Type latterly attaining the status of holy relic and given several prior attempts at reinvention, the onus on Jaguar to recreate it brooked no denial. So from its inception, F-type was intended both as an unabashed recasting, but moreover, the closest production approximation yet to Porsche’s all-conquering 911 in positioning and purpose. Continue reading “Consistent Cat”

Upon release, Jaguar made lavish claims about the significance of the F-Type. How it would become the fulcrum of the entire Jaguar range. How successive models would reference its styling. This has proved wildly inaccurate because on the basis of the two most recent model launches, Jaguar’s pivot point is not in fact the F-Type. It’s the XF. Continue reading “Jaguar’s North Star Saloon”

Driven To Write was founded by a group of writers frustrated with the one-dimensional nature of much of today’s motor journalism. Our aim is to have a distinctive voice and to publish a diversity of writing you won’t find anywhere else. We hope you agree.

All original content remains the sole copyright of the authors. We aim to correctly credit images but if we have used an image that belongs to you and you wish it to be removed, or for the credit to be amended, please contact us.